


Never be destroyed

by caveglow



Category: The Darkest Minds (2018)
Genre: Big Brother Liam, Gen, Memory Loss, Post-Movie: The Darkest Minds (2018), but i love her and so does zu, i know the van isn't technically speaking a character, inspired by the epilogue scene with liam we never got to see
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-20
Updated: 2019-01-20
Packaged: 2019-10-11 09:27:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,373
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17444264
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/caveglow/pseuds/caveglow
Summary: Zu is back on the road, Chubs is still in the hospital and Liam is on his way.





	Never be destroyed

**Author's Note:**

> I loved this movie but when i looked up the fandom here on Ao3 i was shocked by just _how_ microscopic it was, so i finally decided to get off my ass and just write some stuff myself.  
> This idea has been bouncing around in my head for a while until i watched the epilogue scene Jennifer Yuh Nelson animated that never made it into the film (it was so good folks, we were Robbed) and got motivated to finally write it down. I didn't forget Ruby, I originally planned to include her too, but it just didn't want to happen.  
> A big thank you to my sister, who beta read this!

 

   


> “All the world will be your enemy, Prince with a Thousand Enemies, and whenever they catch you, they will kill you. But first they must catch you, digger, listener, runner, prince with the swift warning. Be cunning and full of tricks and your people shall never be destroyed.”
> 
> ― Richard Adams, Watership Down

 

Zu could feel every bump and pothole in the asphalt as the truck continued its way further away from the former campsite. The platform she laid on was cold and hard. She missed Betty, and the nest of blankets and pillows they all used to curl up in. How was Betty doing now? All alone in the forest, no more road trips and cuddle piles. The flowers Zu had left on her hood were probably gone by now. Maybe the wind had swept them away or an animal had eaten them.

Twinkies. It would be so great to have some Twinkies right now. Zu didn’t know how long ago she had last eaten. Thinking about it made her even hungrier. Her stomach growled and she startled. Nobody moved. No one had noticed anything, they were still asleep. Taking a deep breath, she tugged her knees closer and pulled the blanket tighter over her shoulders.

The corner she had curled up in was small, but it made her feel safer than lying out in the middle of the platform like the others.

Her small body pressed against the sides of the pickup. She shut her eyes and imagined it wasn’t cold metal surrounding her, but the big strong arms of Liam, holding her tight and telling her everything would be alright. The platform shifting was just Ruby turning around in her sleep, accidentally stealing Zu’s blankets. The soft murmur of the tires against the road was Chubs breathing to her right. With her eyes closed, she could feel them all next to her, close, breathing, alive.

She shifted a bit, resting her head on her arms. _Don’t worry Zu, it’ll be alright,_ she heard Liam whisper. _I am here, we are all here and we will protect you. Your dreams can’t hurt you. We are right here, and we won’t ever disappear. I promise._

In her dreams, yellow flowers sank their roots through Betty’s hood. They reached deep into the forest ground, like an anchor. They grew, and grew, and grew, until the whole van was covered in yellow petals, a flower castle that would withstand any storm. At the centre of each bloom there sat a tiny lightbulb. A million little suns that grew just for her. She reached out with an uncovered hand and the whole forest was lit up with blinding light, calling her family home.

***

Chubs didn’t dream. He was asleep because there was no other way for him to _be_. His body was too damaged from the burns to exist without help, his mind empty of thought, unable to think. The whirring of his thoughts had been replaced by the whirring of machines and the tinnitus-hum of the lights.

He looked very young in the big hospital bed. The overwhelming white of everything surrounding him - the walls, the sheets, the blinking apparatuses – made the room seem almost unreal. Like a dream, or an unfinished world where someone had yet to add colour and life. It was a blueprint of a sleeping boy, the concept executed with detail but no heart.

There was no natural light falling in through any windows and the beeping of Chubs’ own heartbeat and the steady rhythm of his breaths created an atmosphere of timelessness. This room would look the same tomorrow as it had yesterday and as it did today. Without any point of reference a visitor checking in one week from now would be unable to tell how much time had passed since their last visit, if any at all.

Chub’s glasses laid on the bedside table next to him. The frames were scuffed and distorted in the places they had molten and cooled down again. Somebody had cleaned the lenses. With the dirt gone the scratches in the plastic were more visible than before. The damage was obvious, but they were far from broken. They laid there, untouched, unmoved.

***

Thbb, thbb, breath, thbb, thbb, breath, thbb, thbb, breath. The asphalt under Liam’s feet was dark, still wet from the rain. Staying on the road wasn’t safe, but it was faster than through the woods.

He switched back to walking. If he could keep up his steady rhythm of walking twenty steps, then running twenty steps, then walking again and running again he could probably make it far enough from the house of the league.

He began to run. Enough distance to create some safety. Why did they let him go? It wasn’t like them to just let people leave, especially not him. Which was why he intended to be far gone by the time they changed their minds.

Walking. He would have to turn into the woods soon. Distance was good, but all the distance in the world meant nothing if the league could catch up to him in one of their fancy cars in the blink of an eye. Roads were fast to travel by foot, but even faster by car. He should just steal a car somewhere.

Running. Or he could steal a bike maybe, if people even had bicycles anymore. Faster than running or walking, perhaps even manoeuvrable enough for the woods even if luck was on his side. Silent. No noise meant no attention meant no detection meant no danger.

Walking. Maybe if he came across a house with a shed or something. The league's house had had a garden. Maybe it once belonged to people who enjoyed being outdoors, maybe they owned bicycles and went on rides to have picnics or go swimming or something. Maybe.

Running again. Liam’s thoughts kept drifting back to the girl in the house. She had said she was with the league. She hadn’t looked him in the eye when she did. Why had she come to the door to wish him goodbye? Her face had looked sad.

Back to walking. It didn’t make any sense. Where were the others? What had happened to Zu? The last time he had seen her was when they ran away from the fires and the soldiers. She was so small and brave and she didn’t deserve any of this.

Faster. He remembered how her heart had fluttered against his chest when they escaped. She had been so small, easy to miss, easy to pick up, easy to hold, easy to protect. Zu still was all of these things and yet he had failed her.

Slower. He would make it up to her. Zu was out there somewhere, hopefully with others who would protect her, would do what he couldn’t. They would meet again. He had to believe it, for her sake as much as for his.

He stopped and turned around. The house had gone out of sight long ago. Right now he could not see even the faintest trace of civilisation apart from the road he was standing on.

Zu would be alright. They would find each other and they would find Chubs and maybe together they could find out what the girl in the house had been so sad about, if it was all a big trick and the league was already planning on using him for their next scheme.

They would find out what was going on and why they had let him go. Maybe then he would know why the girl had been so sad. She had seemed nice enough, even though she belonged to them. He hoped nothing bad happened to her before she realised what the league really wanted.

Sighing, he glanced one last time down the road before he turned to the forest to his left. He had wasted too much time already. The sun wouldn’t be shining all that much longer and he still needed to get away from the road and make camp before nightfall.

He gripped onto the shoulder straps and picked up the pace. A small yellow bumblebee charm attached to the side of his backpack swung back and forth, smiling confidently.

**Author's Note:**

> if you enjoyed it, please leave a comment! i Need to share my love for these kids with somebody hrrrgnh


End file.
